Out of this World Developed by Delphine Software | Published by Interplay MSDOS PC, 1991

What it Was: Trial and error was once a key gameplay mechanic. Over a decade ago, difficulty and quality were directly related to how many times a player died and had to restart a level. Out of this World, a stylish, 2D action-platformer-puzzler, was the epitome of trial and error and broke many a keyboard. Oh yeah, it was real good. Trapped on an alien world with absolutely no explanation and no understanding of what had to be done to escape, gamers navigated a goofy red head around wonderfully designed locales and interacted with a variety of giant, ghostly white, block-headed aliens. Oh yeah, it was real, real good.

What it Could Be: Forsaking trial and error may seem like not remaining true to heritage, but a new Out of this World could learn from a little Deus Ex, a little Prince of Persia, a bit of Project Eden, and a lot of ICO.

The first goal is to maintain the same sense of familiar wonder. We find the mystique associated with Out of this World largely attributed to the art style. A remake, technologically inspired by XIII or even Advent Rising (to a less cel-shaded extent), can deliver the same lost in space love the original so effortlessly exuded. Moreover, given advancements in gaming narrative and control, it would be just as possible to leave the mute protagonist and his gimpy cohort silent, thus focusing on what's important: the puzzles, the platforming, and the panache.

This is where Eden and Prince come in. Both games, driven off logical puzzles melted to the environments themselves would blend beautifully with Deus Ex's scope, background fiction, and interactivity. Since the original Out of this World was not a far cry from the original Prince of Persia in terms of control, the combination of titles and styles is only natural, sort of like what Oddworld Xbox was supposed to be, but never managed to evolve into.

For a giggle, why not give this new 3D platforming puzzler a twist and have players eventually control the part of an alien lost on Earth and attempting to escape the same series of traps and deliberately uncooperative villains our stranded human had to encounter in a galaxy far, far away. Give us puzzles, give us art, give us style, give us block-head control.

Tobal No. 1 Developed by Squaresoft | Published by Squaresoft Sony PlayStation, 1996

What it Was: When a weird blue rooster-man with white wool spread over his body in primped poodle fashion can clasp a giant pink bull-ogre by the tail and swing him around a mat, it's fighting heaven. Tobal had this, a developed RPG-ish quest mode, 60fps graphics, buttery animation, and a grappling system unmatched within the traditional 3D fighting arena. There was also a robot and a bunch of aliens. What the hell the game was about, we won't ever claim to know, but it played fine, mighty fine.

What it Could Be: The Japanese only Tobal 2 was a perfect example of could have, should have, would have, didn't. That game used the glorious base fighting model of its father, threw in roughly 200 playable characters, a more developed quest mode, and a bunch of slick special moves, but we never got it. Pathetic how exactly one unlockable character is enough for Dead or Alive 3 to become le great, but the 200 of Tobal were rarely, if ever praised. No longer! Tobal 3, for a PlayStation 2 near you as soon as we're elected presidents of everything, will shame every other fighter on the planet. We'll need a few things first: high-res graphics, animation that makes PoP bow in shame, physics driven collision detection, and freaking English.

The last need may seem most trivial, but it is imperative that the eventual Tobal 3 include support of the English language, right down to our many verbs, nouns, and adjectives. Once in place, this English will better allow the would-be Tobal tournament participants the Americanized world over to enjoy a revitalized grappling system that's position, weight, momentum, and timing dependant. It'll also help us deal with the frustration normally associated with picking through the now 500 unlockable characters, (if Tobal 2 could do 200, we can expect no less than 500 this time around). These brawlers, pugilists, wrestlers, and space-kung-fu masters will be derived from characters originally found in every Square-Enix game since the dawn of time.

Complete with online play, Tobal 3 will immediately become the "greatest fighting game with a goofy name" ever made. Fluidity, responsive controls, slick graphics, online fighting, a tag mode, a character creation tool and in-game physics will make Tobal 3 the beater to beat. Will it happen? Of course! As soon as companies realize making money is of no importance whatsoever, Tobal 3 will begin development. Expect coverage then.